Oct 16, 2026; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Lakers center Walker Kessler (14) during pregame warmups before a against the Denver Nuggets at Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jon Endow-Imagn Images
The Los Angeles Lakers got their first look at Walker Kessler playing alongside Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves in their preseason loss to the Denver Nuggets on Friday night.
Kessler scored six points on 2-of-8 shooting from the field while recording six rebounds, four assists, two blocks and one steal. On the defensive side, he had the unfortunate task of guarding three-time MVP Nikola Jokic.
The results were mixed, which isn’t all that surprising given Kessler’s long layoff from the court. While some rust is to be expected, the 25-year-old knows he will have to live up to massive expectations in his first season with the Lakers.
“Well, I think he wants to embrace that,” head coach JJ Redick said. “I think that’s why he wanted to be a Laker and why he wanted to be here was because of the fact that there are stakes every single night when you wear a Lakers uniform.
“We’ve had a number of conversations. We had a long conversation the other day about it. I think the awareness is there. How do you navigate that early on? How do you navigate that in your first year? There’s no way to predict that because you’ve never dealt with it before. But he’s got great support around him. His agent, Aaron Mintz, has been a longtime friend of mine. I’m here to help him. Like, we’re all here to support him. All these guys that haven’t gone through it, there’s nothing like it.
“I think they all want to embrace it. They all have a chip on their shoulder about it and they want to make Lakers fans proud. I know they will.”
Kessler is looking to establish himself as the next great Lakers center, and so far, they have done an excellent job helping him get acclimated to his new team.
“The support system around me with my teammates, coaching staff, front office, they’re fantastic,” Kessler said. “They’re very vocal about obviously being a Lakers big. There’s a certain legacy with that. But not to look at it as pressure, more so as an opportunity. So that’s kind of the attitude I’m going in with it.”
Walker Kessler enjoyed playing with Luka Doncic & Austin Reaves
After the Lakers’ loss to the Nuggets, Kessler acknowledged there will be a transitional period playing with Doncic and Reaves, but he still enjoyed their on-court time together.
“There’s obviously a transitional period playing with both of Luka and AR on the floor together,” Kessler said. “Kind of what I was saying before, kind of about blitzing ball screens and playing out of that pocket. We started to get it, I started to get it a little bit. Obviously Luka and AR are pretty used to that. But yeah, they’re such good offensive players and our ability to share the ball was fantastic, so it was a lot of fun.”
If you love our reporting, choose LakersNation.com as a preferred source on Google.